New Hu Women's Dorm Will House 84, Feature Office Space

HAMPTON — Ground has been cleared for a three-story women's dormitory and office building at Hampton University, the first new campus digs since White and Holmes halls were built in 2002.

The Hampton Planning Commission approved a building permit for the $9 million project Thursday, giving HU permission to go ahead with the 84-student dorm that's slated to open in the spring of 2010.

An alumni center and a small building that housed 10 students were demolished this summer at East Tyler and East Queen streets to make room for the multipurpose building.

Suite-style quarters that fit four to eight students each will be on the second and third floors, said Barbara Inman, HU vice president of student affairs.

The 11,900-square-foot first floor will house an alumni center, university relations, and career planning and placement offices.

Nearly 6,000 students attend HU, and about half live in one of 21 on-campus dorms, Inman said. Many also live at Hampton Harbours, a university-owned apartment complex near the school's entrance. Of its 246 units, 217 are rented to students, university spokeswoman Yuri Rodgers Milligan said.

Twenty-year-old nursing junior Jennifer Cook, who lived on campus for two years before moving off campus last year, said students were excited to see construction begin.

Existing dorms are tolerable to live in, Cook said. Many of the rooms are small but in decent condition.

Many students "upgrade" by moving off campus in their junior or senior years.

She said, "We heard there would be a dorm, but once we actually saw pictures, we were like, 'Wow, we can tell this is the start of new things to come.' "

Cook said that with the new dorm, plans for a new dining hall, and a research center set to open on campus in September, HU had become more modern and up-to-date in the brief time since she enrolled in 2006.

Plans and fundraising for the $9 million building began more than two years ago, Inman said, so the university can afford to begin construction even in tough economic times.

The building hasn't been named yet.

The newest living space on campus was created in 2008, when second-floor offices in Stone Manor were converted into dorms, for a total of 75 spaces, Milligan said.

That space and the new 84-student dorm will keep on-campus accommodations at the same level, she said, after the vacant 170-student Queen Street Hall dorm is demolished in March.

Inman said a new dining hall was planned for that space once funding was established.